Luciano: A sign of trouble as IDOT scolds Metamora

For four years, a sturdy sign — brick-and-mortar columns supporting an electronic message board — has been greeting Illinois Route 116 motorists crossing the western village limit.

It’s big. It’s bold. It’s catchy.

And it’s illegal.

That’s the opinion of the Illinois Department of Transportation, which offers two options for the sign: The village can change it, or the state will raze it.

Says a livid Mayor Ken Maurer, “It looks to me like they’ll tear it down and leave a pile of crap.”

That’s a distinct possibility. Whereas Maurer derides the state as too persnickety, IDOT says the village should’ve planned better.

Just before Maurer became mayor in 2013, the village got together with the Metamora Area Business Association to brainstorm promotions. They came up with the idea of the sign, 8 feet tall with flashing messages. The sign could publicize everything going on in town, such as charity fundraisers and civic events, along with promoting dues-paying businesses in the association.

Erecting the sign involved a mixed effort. A farmer agreed to give a permanent easement for the sign’s site. The Old Settlers Association, a not-for-profit group, raised and donated thousands of dollars for the building materials. Landscapers, masons and other volunteers donated time. The village picked up the cost of hooking up electricity. The village also pays the monthly electricity bill, though Maurer did not immediately know that amount.

The sign greeted passersby for four years without a complaint. But in December IDOT sent a letter saying the village never applied for a sign permit, as IDOT discovered during a “recent outdoor advertising sign review.”

Sign review? Maurer is dumbstruck that the state has the wherewithal to cruise around searching for scofflaw signs.

“It is bordering on harassment,” Maurer says. “IDOT is supposedly out of money like every government agency. They do not mow the highways very often in mowing season due to limited dollars. (But) evidently, they still have money to harass villages.”

The problem involves the sign being off-premises — in other words, it’s not part of a business on the same property. The first notice, issued Dec. 7, cited the state’s Highway Advertising and Control Act of 1971. Thick with bureaucratic gobbledygook, the act puts Illinois (like all states) in line with Federal Highway Administration standards for public roads. IDOT spokesman Brian Williamsen explains it this way: “The key objective is uniformity and consistency so drivers can expect to see various types of signage in defined areas, further ensuring safe and efficient travel.”

The law allows several classifications for sign permits. The IDOT letter objected to the Metamora sign regarding perhaps the most obvious possible category, as an “official sign”: one maintained by a public body. According to the letter, “As an official sign, it can welcome people to your community, provide public service pronouncements and advertise your business community in general. However, it cannot list or provide messages for a specific business.”

In other words, it’s OK to tout a charity pancake breakfast or to urge passersby to “shop Metamora.” But it can’t publicize local shops.

IDOT gave the village 30 days to request a permit of some sort. Otherwise, “the sign will become property of the State and will be removed and disposed of by the Department of Transportation. All expenses … will be charged to you.”

So Maurer submitted an application (along with a $50 village fee) for an “outdoor advertising permit,” which would allow more leeway in messages (including local-business promos) than the “official sign” designation.

But IDOT sent a denial Jan. 23. “Outdoor advertising” signs must be on land zoned business or commercial, whereas the village’s sign is on ag land. Plus, the sign’s electronic board is legally classified as having a “multiple-message feature”: the law requires each to be fixed for 10 seconds, with a three-second break between each message, but the village messages are much shorter in duration and breaks.

The second IDOT letter allows 30 more days for another application. The letter seemed to hint that IDOT might allow the “official sign” designation, if Metamora were to remove all promotion of local businesses.

Maurer shakes his head. What’s wrong with a municipality trying to draw commerce?

“If this were a giant violation, I’d understand it, like if we were advertising porn,” he says with a chuckle. “And there are no political ads.”

But philosophy and reason aren’t strong enough to keep the sign up, not with IDOT standing firm on the law.

“They threaten that they will bring in the bulldozer,” Maurer says. “Hopefully it would be a Cat bulldozer, because they need money too.”

Maurer has until Feb. 22 to respond to IDOT. At this point, he says he is trying to figure out how to fit the sign into IDOT's edicts. He says maybe the state would be appeased by the addition of a three-second break between messages, but that still would fly in the face of its no-promo prohibition.

I’m not sure what you’re doing Feb. 23. But if the weather is decent, maybe grab a lawn chair and reserve a prime seat along Route 116 on the west edge of town. Get ready to rumble!

From the west, perhaps an IDOT bulldozer would come roaring down the road, aiming at the lawless sign. I’m not sure how Metamora would counter from its side. A mighty backhoe? A dump truck? A legion of every available alumni from Metamora High football teams of the past several decades?

Could be a fight worth watching.

PHIL LUCIANO is a Journal Star columnist. He can be reached at pluciano@pjstar.com, facebook.com/philluciano and (309) 686-3155. Follow him on Twitter.com/LucianoPhil.